Discovery and management of devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10938663-B2
Application number	US-201816058112-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 8, 2018
Priority date	May 7, 2018
Publication date	Mar 2, 2021
Grant date	Mar 2, 2021

Abstract

An embodiment includes a computational instance managing a managed network of computing devices, some communicating by proprietary protocol, and comprising a database storing representations of the computing devices and one or more sets of program logic configured to support the proprietary protocol, as well as one or more server devices configured to: receive, from an edge gateway software application, a request identifying a particular computing device on the managed network that communicates by the proprietary protocol; based on this request, select a set of the program logic configured to support the proprietary protocol; transmit a representation of the program logic, receipt of which is configured to cause the edge gateway software application to execute the set of program logic and obtain thereby configuration and state information from the particular computing device; receive, from the edge gateway software application, the configuration and state information; and store the configuration and state information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A remote network management platform configured to manage a managed network, wherein one or more computing devices in the managed network communicate by way of a proprietary protocol and one or more additional computing devices in the managed network communicate by way of an additional protocol different than the proprietary protocol, the remote network management platform comprising:
a database configured to store representations of the one or more computing devices and the one or more additional computing devices in the managed network as a plurality of configuration items, and respective sets of program logic configured to support a plurality of communication protocols; and
one or more processors configured to:
receive, from an edge gateway software application associated with the managed network, one or more requests that identify a first computing device of the one or more computing devices in the managed network that communicates by way of the proprietary protocol and a second computing device of the one or more computing devices in the managed network that communicates by way of the additional protocol;
based on the one or more requests, select a first set of program logic from the respective sets of program logic that is configured to support the proprietary protocol and a second set of program logic from the respective sets of program logic that is configured to support the additional protocol;
transmit, to the edge gateway software application, a first representation of the first set of program logic and a second representation of the second set of program logic, wherein the edge gateway software application is configured to execute the first set of program logic to obtain a first set of configuration and state information from the one or more computing devices and the edge gateway software application is configured to execute the second set of program logic to obtain a second set of configuration and state information from the one or more additional computing devices;
receive, from the edge gateway software application, the first set of configuration and state information and the second set of configuration and state information; and
store, in the database, the first set of configuration and state information and the second set of configuration and state information as respective configuration items corresponding to the one or more computing devices and the one or more additional computing devices.

2. The remote network management platform of claim 1 , wherein the one or more requests identify the first computing device, or the second computing device, or both, by specifying an open transmission control protocol (TCP) or user datagram protocol (UDP) port associated with the first computing device, the second computing device, or both.

3. The remote network management platform of claim 2 , wherein the database is configured to store respective mappings between: (i) TCP or UDP ports, and (ii) the respective sets of program logic, and wherein selecting the first set of program logic comprises finding a mapping from the open TCP or UDP port associated with the first computing device to the first set of program logic.

4. The remote network management platform of claim 1 , wherein the managed network is communicatively coupled to the remote network management platform by way of at least one wireless network.

5. The remote network management platform of claim 1 , wherein the first representation of the first set of program logic, or the second representation of the second set of program logic, or both, comprise a script that is executable by the edge gateway software application.

6. A method comprising:
receiving, by a server device associated with a remote network management platform and from an edge gateway software application associated with a managed network, one or more requests that identify a first computing device of one or more computing devices in the managed network that communicate by way of a proprietary protocol and a second computing device of one or more additional computing devices in the managed network that communicate by way of an additional protocol, wherein the remote network management platform includes a database configured to store representations of the one or more computing devices and the one or more additional computing devices in the managed network as a plurality of configuration items, and respective sets of program logic configured to support a plurality of communication protocols;
based on the one or more requests, selecting, by the server device, a first set of program logic from the respective sets of program logic that is configured to support the proprietary protocol and a second set of program logic from the respective sets of program logic that is configured to support the additional protocol;
transmitting, by the server device and to the edge gateway software application, a first representation of the first set of program logic and a second representation of the second set of program logic, wherein the edge gateway software application is configured to execute the first set of program logic to obtain a first set of configuration and state information from the one or more computing devices and the edge gateway software application is configured to execute the second set of program logic to obtain a second set of configuration and state information from the one or more additional computing devices;
receiving, by the server device and from the edge gateway software application, the first set of configuration and state information and the second set of configuration and state information; and
storing, by the server device and in the database, the first set of configuration and state information and the second set of configuration and state information as respective configuration items corresponding to the one or more computing devices and the one or more additional computing devices.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the one or more requests identify the first computing device, or the second computing device, or both, by specifying an open transmission control protocol (TCP) or user datagram protocol (UDP) port associated with the first computing device, the second computing device, or both.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the database is configured to store respective mappings between: (i) TCP or UDP ports, and (ii) the respective sets of program logic, and wherein selecting the first set of program logic comprises finding a mapping from the open TCP or UDP port associated with the first computing device to the first set of program logic.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the managed network is communicatively coupled to the remote network management platform by way of at least one wireless network.

10. The method of claim 6 , wherein the first representation of the first set of program logic, or the second representation of the second set of program logic, or both, comprise a script that is executable by the edge gateway software application.

11. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium, comprising instructions that when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
receive, from an edge gateway software application associated with a managed network, one or more requests that identify a first computing device of one or more computing devices in the managed network that communicate by way of a proprietary protocol and a second computing device of one or more additional computing devices in the managed network that communicates by way of an additional protocol;
selecting, based on the one or more requests, a first set of program logic and a second set of program logic from r

Assignees

• Servicenow Inc

Inventors

• Barnard Bryan Mather
• Smith Silas Andrew
• Lisac William Michael
• Jones Jerrold Henry
• Sparks Jonathan

Classifications

• H04L41/12 Primary

  Discovery or management of network topologies · CPC title

• H04L41/0226 Primary

  Mapping or translating multiple network management protocols · CPC title

• H04L67/51

  Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services · CPC title

• H04L41/20

  Network management software packages · CPC title

• H04L41/0853

  by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information · CPC title